Familial DNA helped solve a gruesome cold case…just like in the recent Golden State killer/night stalker case

We have all seen crime shows on TV – the ones that use DNA to solve some of the most difficult murder cases.  It’s pretty amazing.  Investigators that use their gut instincts and won’t give up, using great investigative skills, in combination with DNA, this all adds up to be an amazing combination.  The following link shows what it took to solve a case from 2002. http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2017/01/23/the-daring-dna-hunt-that-cracked-france-s-gruesome-cold-case.html?via=desktop&source=twitter

I love reading stories like this – stories that show families that never gave up.  Stories that give us hope that justice will someday happen.  I would like to praise the investigators that stuck with this case.

I hope familial DNA will start being used in many unsolved cases – cases where the murderer does not have their DNA in CODIS. It could be a HUGE breakthrough in solving so many cases, and could help to stop serial murderers as well.

In a more recent case,

Another big step forward in solving murders In this country would be the implementation of a national database of cold cases.  It’s hard to believe, but it’s true – we have no national database of cold cases in this country.  There is no way to link crimes in different states to the same MO/murderer.  if the killer is arrested for another crime in a state like Colorado, where all felons must be tested for DNA, a match will be made, but very few states have this requirement.  For example .if DNA was found in a murder investigation in one state, unless the murderer’s DNA is in CODIS .  If they have never been arrested their DNA would not be in CODIS. And her is the problem…law enforcement is not required to report murder cases – so to think that a skilled and persistent detective could solve a murder if the murderer kept moving around while still

We need to get in front of more crimes happening to innocent victims and familial DNA and implementing a national database of murders (that law enforcement is required to report murders to) would be a huge step forward.

A match was made from the DNA profile from the Bennett and Smith cases. It has been determined that it was the same murderer.

The Bennett family murders in Colorado (no sign of forced entry)

http://blogs.denverpost.com/coldcases/2015/01/16/aurora-cat-burglar-slaughters-family-serial-murder-spree/9728/

Jan. 10, 1984, six days earlier then the Bennett murders, Patricia Louise Smith was raped and murdered (no sign of forced entry) 

Serial killer bludgeons Lakewood woman with hammer

 

Roy and Patricia Bowden murders (no signs of forced entry)

Couple gunned down in own home

Authorities also said there’s no signs of forcible entry at the home – this is the same reason the Garfield County Sheriffs used to say that Morgan’s stalker(s) could not have been in our house…what a bunch of BS – there are so many murders, rapes & kidnappings that have no visible signs of forced entry, does that mean a crime didn’t happen?  Nope – it does not!  In Morgan’s case her stalker(s) tried multiple times to punch in our front door code to gain access to our house.  Our house was empty between 6 pm – 8 pm the night Morgan was murdered.  Our dogs were locked up in the laundry room and I believe her stalker(s) came into our house and hid in Morgan’s closet until everyone went to sleep…then he attacked her, while she was asleep.  The act of a total COWARD!!!

http://wreg.com/2016/08/26/father-discovers-son-dead-inside-cordova-home/

 

 

 

Staged Crime Scenes…

It is not unlikely, and has happened many times before, that someone who wanted to kill has “Staged-the-Scene” to make a death appear to be a suicide, in order to cover up the murder. https://www.forensicmag.com/article/2016/12/staged-crime-scenes-suicide-murder-or-disappearance

This is what happened in our 20-year-old daughter Morgan’s case.  I also believe it has happened in another case out of Colorado – the Holly Moore case. Holly would have been a 22-year-old young woman this year, but her life, like Morgan’s, was cut short.  https://www.facebook.com/InvestigationDiscovery/videos/10154627057814902/?pnref=story

There are many experts in this country that not only understand “staged crime scenes,” and they also train coroners, as well as law enforcement, to know what to look for.  Unfortunately most officers on a crime scene do not know what to look for, BUT there is a protocol to follow, and there are experts that can help with the investigation. Morgan had “abrasions” on her body noted on her autopsy body diagram – she fought back against her attacker. She had 3 broken nails, and multiple abrasions on her hands and upper extremities (all defensive wounds) + much more that show she was attacked.  Her body was moved postmortem – confirmed by the crime scene photos and yet, no investigation…  Why?

So what if the “protocol” is not followed?  Then, as in Morgan & Holly’s cases, murderers will remain on our streets.  The key here is that a suspicious death scene protocol should always be followed – and that is not always the case.  In Colorado the forensic pathologist is RESPONSIBLE for the investigation, but in both Morgan’s case and the Holly Moore case, I know that is not what happened.  The contracted forensic pathologists did not investigate, and did not review or consider all the facts.  They did not do all the testing that should have been done to determine the true manner of death, and when other forensic experts and medical examiners contacted these two pathologists, they refused to listen to the facts.  And this my friend, is exactly how you get away with murder in Colorado…when the officials we trust break the law, and there are no checks and balances, no oversight committees, no one to take another look at what went wrong with their conclusions, there can ultimately be no justice.

I am outraged!  We should all be outraged…as this is not an isolated situation.  The number of unsolved murders in this country is huge, but I know that number, in reality, is much higher, if the TRUE murder rate was revealed and not “swept under the rug.”

Too many murders are staged to look like accidental or suicide, and too many coroners are all too happy to never investigate or change a ruling when new evidence is presented.  This is absolutely NOT what our citizens want…we want to trust that these officials really care about following the law, doing their job and getting to the truth.  Sadly that is not always the case.

People deserve the due process of the law.  It appears in our Constitution twice.  It states that no person shall be “deprived of life, liberty, or property without due process of law.” … The Fifth & Fourteenth Amendments promise that all persons in the United States shall enjoy the “equal protection of the laws.” It is a legal concept, in effect, to ensure that our government follows the rule of law. When a governmental entity disregards someone’s rights to that due process then the power of that law is supposed to come into play.

When US citizens, like Morgan and Holly, are murdered, and their lives have violently been taken from them, then they have been deprived of their life and liberty.  And when the coroner and/or the police or sheriffs refuse to really investigate a possible murder, then again they are, as are their families, deprived of their due process under the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendment.

Colorado State Law: If a victim in Colorado (like Morgan) is deceased, their victim’s rights can still be exercised by the victim’s spouse, parent, child, sibling, grandparent, grandchild, significant other, or other lawful representative. They have the right to be heard – so when Garfield County, as well as officials in the State of Colorado, refuse to listen to the co-victims they are going against their own state law. https://cdpsdocs.state.co.us/ovp/VRA/Crime_Victims_Rights_English22016.pdf 

Let me know your thoughts about this subject…

The Broken Coroner’s System in Colorado…

FACTS:

  • To be a coroner, one merely needs to be 18, a U.S. citizen, a resident of the county he or she will serve and cannot have a felony conviction.
  • In a survey of Colorado coroners across the state, only a handful are forensic pathologists.
  • Colorado’s 63 county coroners are mostly elected and aren’t required to have a medical degree.
  • Colorado coroners are ELECTED and as such they do not have to answer to the DA, to law enforcement, to defense lawyers, to the hospital establishment, or to the medical establishment.
  • When the coroner is not a pathologist (as in Morgan’s case) they contract with an independent pathologist (Pathologist Dr. Robert Kurtzman did Morgan’s autopsy) who does the autopsy for a fee.  The more autopsies a pathologist can do ‘quickly’ the more money they make, an obvious conflict of interest.
  • The coroner in Morgan’s case, Trey Holt, NEVER spoke to us, NEVER got on the phone with us, NEVER would speak with us when we showed up at his office (they always said he was NEVER there), NEVER would allow a meeting to be scheduled with us, NEVER answered out letters, NEVER even would speak with the FBI agent that was trying to facilitate a meeting between us all so we could show him the evidence that his contracted pathologist would not look at.
  • Colorado has counties with deputy coroners with no training in death. investigations, as in Garfield County, CO – exactly like the deputy coroner that came to Morgan’s crime scene – the coroner NEVER came to the crime scene.
  • Colorado is one of 14 states that still relies on a civilian coroner system, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention – the other states have gone to centralized medical examiner systems, where doctors, not civilians, are in charge.
  • Many times it comes down to whether or not the coroner wants to spend money out of their budget, to investigate – investigations are expensive, and testing is expensive, but here we are, citizens/co-victims who think the coroner is going to investigate and tell them if their loved one was really murdered…but that is not what is happening – many cases are not listed correctly, and the murder is overlooked, evidence swept under the rug.
  • Colorado’s coroner system needs to change, and that would require new legislation.  It is not impossible for that to happen and it is needed ASAP if justice is important!
  • What if your loved one was the victim of murder, and the coroner turned a blind eye, swept it under the rug with a ruling of Natural Causes, Suicide or Accidental death?  Sadly that is exactly what has happened in many, many cases across Colorado because of their archaic coroner’s system.
  • Families should not have to fight against the coroner to get justice for their loved ones…it’s just not right – it only leads to re-victimization of the victims.
  • http://www.9news.com/article/news/local/investigations/coroners-in-colorado-have-an-important-job-with-few-requirements-to-get-it/73-502853238
  • https://pagetwo.completecolorado.com/2014/01/23/3339/